Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley has defended Taylor Swift after she was booed by sections of the crowd during Sunday’s Super Bowl.
The pop star was in New Orleans to support her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, as his Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Eagles. When Swift was shown on the Superdome’s videoscreens she was greeted with boos and appeared to mouth “What’s going on?”
In an appearance on the Howard Stern Show on Wednesday Barkley was asked about gossip around Kelce and Swift’s possible engagement. Instead, he defended Swift.
“I remember that they showed her on the jumbotron, and she got booed. I don’t get it. I don’t get why she was getting hate there,” Barkley said. “She was there supporting her significant other, and she’s made the game bigger. In football we’re all about, ‘How can we expand the game and make it more [international]?’ We’re traveling to Brazil, we’re traveling to Mexico. Apparently, we’re traveling to Australia soon. We’re trying to expand the game, and her being a part of it is only helping it. I don’t get the dislike she’s getting.”
Swift grew up near Philadelphia, has been photographed in Eagles gear and was assumed to be fan before she started appearing at Chiefs games in Kansas City jerseys when she started her relationship with Kelce. That may have led to Eagles fans booing her, although others speculated some in the crowd were reacting to her support for Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election.
For his part, Barkley said he was delighted by the support he had received since joining the Eagles from their divisional rivals, the New York Giants, last year.
“[Eagles fans] just shower you with love,” Barkley said. “And it’s been pretty cool for me and my family ‘cause kind of how things ended in New York. There was always love and support there, but things didn’t end off on a great note, I guess you could say. And to be able to come here and just the way how they’ve taken me in and my family in, and my daughter is the star here. They love my little daughter. So it’s been pretty cool.”
